Car Tourismo Banner
Home » Regional » North Clare » Burren-Tolkien link found

Burren-Tolkien link found

Car Tourismo Banner

THE close link between the Burren and the Lord of the Rings – ranked as one of the most highly acclaimed works of the 20th century – has been confirmed at local level by Lisdoonvara businessman, Peter Curtin.
From his investigations, he is satisfied that the imagery and imagination for JRR Tolkien’s three-volume novel were inspired by the breathtaking landscapes of the Burren.
From what he has learned, Mr Curtin of the Roadside Tavern and Burren Smokehouse is in no doubt that one of Clare’s finest tourist attractions did in fact provide the inspiration for the Oxford University professor to write the novel, which was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, much of it during Word War II.
The Lord of the Rings was published in 1954-1955 and it has since been reprinted numerous times and translated into many languages.
The Burren link was discovered through a chance meeting Mr Curtin had in a Galway bar while he was living in the City of the Tribes in the 1970s.
On one of his visits to Mrs Cullen’s bar, he became engaged in conversation with an elderly lady. When he told her that he was from Lisdoonvara, she said that she was a Miss Crowe and for 30 years was the housekeeper for a Dr Martyn in his private residence, which is now Gregan’s Castle.
She also told him that the imagery and imagination for the book, The Lord of the Rings, is the Burren.
However, it was not until two years ago that the Roadside Tavern proprietor decided to investigate Miss Crowe’s statement.
One of the first things he did was to speak with Mrs Cullen, who told him that Miss Crowe called to the pub every morning for breakfast for a number of years.
Mrs Cullen had an uncle who was a priest in Ballyvaughan and she recalled taking Miss Crowe back to Gregan’s Castle to view her former residence.
His investigations into what Miss Crowe had said also brought him to the University of Galway, where Professor Hubert McDermott confirmed that Tolkien had been the external examiner to the English department for a number of years and that a classmate of his, Rose McNamara (née Murphy), was the daughter of Professor Murphy, the head of the English department at UCG. As head of the department, Professor Murphy was expected to entertain the visiting examiner.
Mr Curtin discovered that Rose McNamara was in fact living just 15 miles away in Corofin and so he spoke to her about Tolkien. She recalled her many times as a young girl in the company of Tolkien and her parents. Tolkien and the Murphy family became life-long friends and Rose also confirmed that her parents took Tolkien to the Burren and to Dr Martyn’s residence on numerous occasions and also to Connemara.
The Lisdoonvara man has now formed the Burren Tolkien Society and his new evidence is included on his Roadside Tavern website. The society also had a New York launch in Albany on April 26.
Apart from promoting the Burren and North Clare, Mr Curtin is also hoping that the Burren-Tolkien link will urge more people to carry out their own investigations and maybe more information will be brought forward about JRR Tolkien and the Burren.
Mr Curtin is the third generation of his family in the famous Lisdoonvara hostelry. It has been run by the Curtin family since 1893 and is one of the oldest pubs in the Burren.

About News Editor

Check Also

Mort to be honoured on St Patrick’s Day

Ballyvaughan’s finest, Mort O Loughlin, has been chosen to be the grand marshal of this …